Birżebbuġa’s deputy mayor said that the local council’s financial situation is not severe, and definitely not out of hand, despite being portrayed otherwise by Mayor Joseph Farrugia.
On Tuesday, The Malta Independent reported that Birżebbuġa’s mayor, Joseph Farrugia, said he will not be contesting the next local council election because of the Council’s escalating cash problems.
However, Deputy Mayor Kevin Barun described this as a misquotation, and that Farrugia’s decision not to contest the election cannot be exclusively tied to that. He noted that Mr Farrugia has been a member of the Council for the last 21 years. He was first elected back in 1994.
Asked about the financial situation, Mr Barun said it is nothing out of the ordinary, and is under control. He explained that because local councils have limited resources, they often have to incur debt to carry out major projects. “Every council which agrees to a public-private partnership encounters a similar situation. It is comparable to someone taking a loan to buy property. The council needs to decide whether to commit to paying the bill by a certain year, or extend the time period, and end up paying a larger amount in the end.”
A few years back, the locality’s local council decided to carry out works on Triq Il-Bajja s-Sabiha, a project completed last year. The project was paused halfway through because of alleged irregularities, and the council ended up having to pay more because the price of tarmac had changed when the project was re-started.
The last local council election in Birżebbuġa was held in 2012, meaning that the next election would have been held in 2017. However, the 2017 local council elections are set to be postponed to 2019 to coincide with the European Parliament election.
Speaking on RTK radio on Tuesday, Mayor Joseph Farrugia said that the council’s expenses have increased seven-fold, and cited the fact that the Auditor General has accused the local council of running up high debts as the reason for his decision to leave the political scene.